Spring 2014

Descartes explains how the eyes can focus on a nearby object. From Stephen Gaukroger (Ed), The World and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004, p. 158.

Overview

This is a graduate reading course on philosophy of mind. Please contact me if you would like to participate. Independent study forms can now be filled out online. The reading list will evolve as the course progresses. A BibTeX file containing all the references below can be found here. Unless otherwise advertised, we meet in the Lewis White Beck Memorial Library at 11am–12pm.

Schedule

Friday 24 January

• Chalmers, David J. 1995. “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness”, in Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 200–219
• Chalmers, David. 2010. “Afterword: From “Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness””, in The Character of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 28–34

Friday 31 January

• Chalmers, David J. 2002. “Consciousness and its Place in Nature”, in Chalmers (Ed), Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 247–272

Friday 7 February

• Chalmers, David. 2010. “The Two-Dimensional Argument against Materialism”, in The Character of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 141–191, §§1–5.

Friday 14 February, 11:30am–12:30pm

• Chalmers, David. 2010. “The Two-Dimensional Argument against Materialism”, in The Character of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 141–191, §§6–10.

Friday 21 February

• Block, Ned and Stalnaker, Robert. 1999. “Conceptual Analysis, Dualism, and the Explanatory Gap”, in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 108, No. 1, January, pp. 1–46. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2998259.

No meetings on Friday 28 February, Friday 7 March and Friday 14 March

Friday 21 March

• Chalmers, David J. and Jackson, Frank. 2001. “Conceptual Analysis and Reductive Explanation”, in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 110, No. 3, July, pp. 315–360. Note: Read the version in The Character of Consciousness.

Friday 28 March

• Chalmers, David J. and Jackson, Frank. 2001. “Conceptual Analysis and Reductive Explanation”, in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 110, No. 3, July, pp. 315–360. Note: We'll focus on the final part of the paper, beginning with the passage starting “(5) Methodology and simplicity” (p. 234).

No meetings on Friday 4 April and Friday 11 April

Friday 18 April

• Chalmers, David. 2010. “The Content of Phenomenal Concepts”, in The Character of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 251–275.

Friday 25 April

• Chalmers, David J. 2007. “Phenomenal Concepts and the Explanatory Gap”, in Alter and Walter (Ed), Phenomenal Concepts and Phenomenal Knowledge: New Essays on Consciousness and Physicalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 167–194.